A U.S. District Court judge from Massachusetts has blocked major revisions to the nation’s childhood vaccine schedule and suspended members of the reorganized Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP).
In a ruling issued on Monday, U.S. District Judge Brian E. Murphy found that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) likely violated federal law when they bypassed long‑standing scientific and procedural norms, sidelined ACIP, and installed a largely unqualified slate of new committee members.
Several medical groups, led by American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), filed the lawsuit in response to changes made last year to COVID-19 vaccine recommendations for children and women, and amended it in January after HHS overhauled childhood vaccine recommendations.
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Murphy wrote that the administration is likely to have acted “contrary to law” when CDC Director Matthew O’Neill issued a January memo reducing the number of routine childhood vaccines from 17 to 11, without consulting ACIP, the federal advisory committee that develops recommendations on the use of vaccines. Its recommendations are typically followed by CDC, state health departments, and pediatricians nationwide, and many insurers also rely on ACIP guidelines to determine vaccine coverage.
The judge also found the memo “arbitrary and capricious,” noting that CDC abandoned decades of practice without explanation and relied instead on input from officials who had no statutory role in vaccine policy.
As a result, Murphy temporarily halted the January 2026 immunization schedule and reinstated the prior version while the lawsuit winds its way through the courts.
Ruling: ACIP members suspended
The court also ruled that the plaintiffs are likely to prove that HHS unlawfully reconstituted ACIP last year by firing all existing members and rapidly installing replacements without proper vetting.
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HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said that the changes to the committee were necessary to restore confidence in vaccine policy, which he argued has been undermined by public distrust and perceived conflicts of interest within federal health agencies.
Murphy stayed the appointments of 13 ACIP members, effectively preventing the committee from having its upcoming March18-19 meeting or taking action. The court also stayed all vaccine‑related votes the reconstituted ACIP took in 2025, including actions affecting flu, COVID‑19, and hepatitis B vaccine recommendations.
The judge declined to rule on the legality of Kennedy’s May 2025 directive instructing CDC to stop recommending COVID‑19 vaccines for pregnant women and healthy children, saying that challenge may be moot or not properly before the court at this stage.
Reaction and next steps
The ruling means pediatricians will continue to follow the 2025 guidelines while the case moves forward.
The federal government is expected to appeal the decision. Andrew Nixon, a spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services, told The Washington Post that the department “looks forward to this judge’s decision being overturned just like his other attempts to keep the Trump administration from governing.”
AAP President Andrew Racine, M.D., Ph.D., FAAP, said in a statement, that the ruling is a “welcome outcome for children, communities, and pediatricians everywhere.” The actions taken by HHS and CDC, he said, have led to chaos and confusion for parents and pediatricians across the country.